Specification

PARTNER NEWS: Orders are up 75% year-on-year at HCE and tokenization specialist Bell ID, the company reports, “with 90% of all new orders and requests for proposals focusing on mobile solutions.” The growth in sales… More

Windows 10 will support the next version of the Fast Identification Online (Fido) Alliance technical specifications, Microsoft has announced, allowing users to unlock their devices using biometric authentication instead of passwords. “Transitioning away from passwords and to a stronger form of identity is one of the great challenges that we face in online computing, and we believe Fido authentication is the pathway to success,” says Microsoft’s Dustin Ingalls.

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has published the first draft of a specification that will be used to introduce an electronic payments system that leverages both mobile payments and Aadhaar, India’s biometrics-based ID system. “This Unified Payment Interface document provides a payments architecture that is directly linked to achieving the goals of universal electronic payments, a less cash society and financial inclusion using the latest technology trends,” NPCI says.

SIMalliance has published version 3.0 of its Open Mobile API Specification, bringing with it support for “every type of smartphone OS globally”. The specification sets out a standard way for mobile applications to access different secure elements — including SIM-based and embedded SEs — within a mobile device and is currently implemented in more than 150 models of Android NFC smartphone.

The Fido Alliance has published final drafts of version 1.0 of its Universal Authentication Framework (UAF) and Universal Second Factor (U2F) specifications. The specifications enable websites and cloud applications to replace the need for passwords with “a broad variety of existing and future Fido ­enabled authenticators, ranging from biometrics to hardware tokens”. Extensions that will add support for both NFC and Bluetooth are also nearing completion, the alliance says.

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has adopted version 4.2 of the Bluetooth core specification, introducing security improvements that mean Bluetooth beacons are now unable to engage with smartphones without permission from the user and making it harder for eavesdroppers to track a device via its Bluetooth connection. More

EMVCo has published A Guide to EMV Chip Technology, a report that provides an introduction to the EMV specifications and processes as well as the role of the technology within the wider payments industry. “Of particular interest to parties migrating to EMV Chip, it summarises implementation considerations for issuers, acquirers and merchants, as well as the responsibilities of EMVCo and its ongoing activity to advance the technology,” the standards body explains.

The Canadian government is preparing to give merchants the ability to refuse to accept a particular NFC payment service if it attracts higher than usual fees — should that situation ever arise in the future, a document obtained by the WSJ reveals. “Should fees set by the payment card networks in respect of contactless payments made from a mobile device increase relative to card-based contactless payments, payment card networks will develop the technical specifications to ensure that merchant acceptance of contactless payments made from a mobile device can be cancelled at the point-of-sale without disabling other forms of contactless payments acceptance,” the document states.

The US Federal Reserve’s Mobile Payments Industry Workgroup (MPIW) has given cautious backing to the potential of tokenization in mobile payments and formed a subgroup dedicated to exploring the impact of the technology in more… More

Memory card standards group the SD Association has expanded its iSDIO specification to include support for TransferJet, a short range contactless communications technology that enables data to be transferred between devices at high speed. “TransferJet technology… More

The NFC Forum has added analog testing to its certification program, enabling device manufacturers to prove that their products are compliant with international radio frequency (RF) performance specifications for the first time. Certification testing for… More

Apple has joined GlobalPlatform, the organisation responsible for defining standards for the secure elements used to store sensitive data in NFC phones. The move means that, when and if Apple provides developers with access to… More

BBVA has become the first bank to launch a commercial NFC payments service that makes use of Visa’s cloud-based payments specifications. Customers in Spain with an Android NFC handset can use host card emulation (HCE)… More

New versions of nine NFC Forum specifications have been published today, including version 1.3 of the NFC Connection Handover Technical Specification which now provides a way to use an intermediary NFC device to set up… More

The NFC Forum has issued a statement outlining its position on host card emulation (HCE). The industry body confirms that the use of HCE does not conflict with its own standards but cautions that “service… More

The first version of the EMV Payment Tokenization Specification has now been published and is available to download. The document sets the scene for the arrival of MasterCard, Visa, American Express, Discover, JCB and UnionPay… More

A new tokenization framework being developed by EMVCo for the world’s major payments networks will enable EMV transactions to be made on a mobile phone using the widest possible range of “last inch” technologies— and… More

Japanese carrier KDDI, Korea’s SK Planet, Taiwan’s Chunghwa Telecom and Hong Kong Telecommunications (HKT) are to work together to spread adoption of NFC services in Asia, using a shared NFC tag specification, brand mark and… More

Chip maker Broadcom has unveiled a new generation of NFC controllers that reduce power consumption by 60%, lower the total cost for device manufacturers by 35% and cut antenna size by 50% — making them… More